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Sunday, July 14, 2013

The Reveal --finally and it still isn't "finished" (giveaway too!)

Some of you have been waiting for the reveal of the piece I have been working on. This is the one that has a fair amount of hand work in it. My right index finger bears the pain of this piece from pulling the needle through so many times.
I know you are thinking "Enough! Just show us." Ha ha...so I will

This is my version of the Windmill quilt from Laura Wasilowski's book "Fanciful Stitches- Colorful Quilts." By the way, you get the ebook version of this FREE as part of the class Hand Stitched Collage Quilts on Craftsy. It still needs backed and bound in some manner. I may also go in and add some machine quilting since I am now in love with Free Motion Quilting.
When I showed another art quilt, I was contacted by my friend and pusher hand dyed fabric vendor, Vicki Welsh. She graciously offered some small pieces of her shibori dyed fabrics to use in my next art quilt. No hesitation on my part! I was thrilled to try it.
So let me tell you about the fabrics in this piece:

The sky fabric came from my stash and I honestly don't know where it came from.

The roof of the lighthouse is one of Vicki's gradient pieces -I forced myself to cut this right out of the middle of it. (it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would)

The walls of the lighthouse (orange) are from another gradient. Yes, I cut into that one too!

The ground is still another gradient. (can you tell how much I love these gradients? you get so much variety in one piece!) (the door came from that piece too.)

The windows in the light house came from the same gradient as the orange walls.

The tulip blooms and the leaves are from a couple of shibori hand dyes.

The wonderful visual texture in the windmill blades come from a shibori also.

Here are some other pictures:

Windmill blade and the shibori fabric below that I used for it.

notice the lovely color variations in both the windows and the roof!

A great leaf Shibori

Detail of Blooms and Leaves

A great tulip Shibori (also good for other flowers!)

I used several colors of Auriful wool in the hand stitching on the leaves, the windows and the round "thing" in the center of the windmill blades. It was perfect to add a different texture to the piece.

Aren't those fabrics wonderful? Don't you wish you had some to put in a project? I know you do.

Enter soon! I will close entries on July 19th (midnight central time) and draw a winner soon after that. I may not reply to all comments on this post if it gets a lot of response simply due to time limitations.

Here are some other links to Vicki's blog and newsletter. I love looking at Vicki's blog for inspiration

42 comments:

Your piece is amazing. I really like the movement created in the scene. Just beautiful!The fabric that caught my eye is "TOMISATO". It makes me think of being within dense trees in the winter and the edges give it a day dreamy sensation. These fabrics are absolutely gorgeous.

Your quilt reminds me of Holland MI, they have a tulip festival every year. There is a windmill there and tulips everywhere. Lovely. The fabric I like is the Inzia, it would work well for grass and trees etc. Thanks for the giveaway.

What a wonderful piece. I've been to Holland. It took me right back there. I can see the man coming out the door with his pants rolled up and his metal bucket in hand. The fabric's are really wonderful.

I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone of neutrals and pastels. I do love red though!

I think I'm drawn to Nogata because it looks icy. With the coming of winter I usually go for the strikingly cool colors and this is one. Thanks for the give away...I'll be visiting often since I found you on Ravelly's blog.

Gene it is wonderful....I can jsut feel the wind blowing... I just love when people do their version because it becomes more real. You did a great job, your stitching looks wonderful and well the fabric just beautimus!Went o Vicki's blog and other than loving her fabric as usual i really have a wonderful feeling towards "Nikaho" It is beautiful the colors are just wonderful it just speaks to me....Ejoy your happy day of your big "reveal" it is well deserved...

I have a fascination with tulips and windmills- this is so perfect and pretty!!! I went to the Etsy shop- be still my heart - and she lives in VA not too far from me!!! Will add her to my Etsy circle and place an order as soon as I have some spare $$. Favorites were Iyo and Tagawa- it was really hard to pick just one!!!

Oh wow Gene, your windmill is amazing...such details.Now for my choice from Vicki' fabric...are you kidding me....LOLI was very hard for me to pick, I took about 10 minutes going back and forth but finally I think my favorite is Yanagawa...it the orange/yellow like of tiger stripe one. I see so many possibilities with that one. Love it!!

I am visiting from Vicki's blog. I love her inspiration as well. Beautiful use of her hand-dyed fabrics in your piece. Very inspiring. I like her inzai shibori the best but I love them all! Thanks for the giveaway.

Your work is beautiful. I love the way you used the fabrics--that's a gift. Love the Yanagawa Shibori. I have a couple of Vickie's hand dyes that I still haven't cut--they're beautiful. And the pressing sheet looks like a treasure. You inspired me to pull out my old pressing sheets instead of using parchment paper. The pressing sheets do keep the iron from getting so mucked up. Parchment paper has some kind of finish that leaves residue on my iron.

It was hard to narrow down to just one, but I think my favorite is Nogata. I love the colors, and how the columns alternate between crisp and fuzzy lines. Thanks for the chance to win!

The windmill is a nice piece! I also have a problem cutting into fabrics I love. Every now and again I have to force myself to realize that they're not being seen and appreciated if they're in the stash, and I'll break down and cut one up.

Congratulations on your win at the Fat Quarter Shop, your fabrics are great! I love Vicki's Nogata fabric, the aqua blue is so delicate and I have a granddaughter who would absolutely love it in a quilt! Thanks for the giveaway.

Wow they are all so great! I guess I would have to pick Kurume. It reminds me of trees reflected in a Minnesota lake. All of her fabrics are wonderful.. I have yet to purchase any because I too have the problem that some fabrics are too wonderful to cut. To solve this problem now, I buy a larger piece than I need and cut up half of it and "look" at the other half.

KnitPicks

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Electric Quilt

About Me

I am American Indian (Cherokee that I am sure of -possibly other) and Irish (with a few other bits thrown in for good measure)
I paint therefore I am. I create, therefore I am.
Both my grandmothers were quilters, I grew up playing under a quilting frame that was hung from the rafters on the front porch. From that I developed a sense of abstract AND a history with quilting.
I made my very first quilt block in March of 2008. And thus began my journey as a quilter.
Life is like a patchwork quilt. You can make yours bright bold and exciting or you can try to copy your neighbor's pattern. I like to think of mine as a patch of wild flowers with every color and shape I can add.